STURROCK’S LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND TENDERS. (1864)

This controversial invention was the subject of much acrimony and discussion at the time. The tenders were converted into ordinary usage at a later date.

”The main object of this invention, by Archibald Sturrock, Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Northern Railway Doncaster, is to utilise the adhesion derived from the weight of the tender as a power to propel the train in addition to that of the engine proper instead of the engine, as under present circumstances, having the dead weight of the tender to draw.

The invention consists in fitting auxiliary cylinders and engines on or to the tender, in connecting them through ordinary connecting rods in the usual manner to the wheels of the tender, in coupling all or some of the wheels of the tender, and in taking steam for the tender cylinders from the ordinary boiler which supplies the engine proper.

The invention also consists in forming the water tank in the tender with a false bottom, and in leading the exhaust steam from the tender cylinders into the chamber between the two bottoms. Sometimes, instead of forming the tender with a false bottom, the waste steam is made to circulate through a coil or series of pipes carried through the water in the tender; this steam heats the water in the tank, and the steam which is condensed in the chamber or pipes returns into the tender aud is forced by the pumps into the boiler.”